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Hockey Australia Updates Men's Senior Squad

23 July 2015

One of our Athlete Facilitators, Trent Mitton is among a number of WAIS athletes confirmed in Hockey Australia's national squads.

This article first appeared on the WAIS website (http://www.wais.org.au).

Following the Kookaburras' successful World League Semi Final campaign, which saw Australia's men's team qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games, Hockey Australia has reconfirmed its national senior and development squads.

Both squads contain WAIS representation, with the senior squad listing five
scholarship holders and the underpinning development squad identifying a
further two athletes.

Kiel Brown, Fergus Kavanagh, Tyler Lovell, Trent Mitton
and Aran Zalewski have all been confirmed in the senior squad, whilst Chris
Bausor and Tristan Clemons are in the 11-man development squad.

New South Wales’ Blake Govers moves into the senior
national squad and has been offered and accepted a Hockey Australia scholarship
following his performances in the World League and in May’s Tests against
Pakistan, New Zealand and Korea in Hobart.

The 19 year-old forward from Wollongong finished as the
top goal scorer at the Hockey World League Semi Final in Antwerp, finding the
net seven times in seven matches. He was subsequently named as the tournament’s
best junior player.

In joining older brother Kieran in the squad, Blake’s inclusion makes the
Govers brothers the second pair of siblings in the men’s national squad
alongside Northern Territory’s Jeremy and Leon Hayward.

Russell Ford is no longer included in the national squad having retired from
international hockey in April 2015 while Tasmanian Nick Budgeon will make the
transition from the national senior squad to the national development squad.

Men’s National Coach Graham Reid said, "The national senior and development
squads, which are largely unchanged, reflect our primary focus on the
development of our squad as we move into the final 12 months before the Rio
2016 Olympic Games.

"We will continue to build capacity and experience in the group to give us the
best possible chance of success in Rio.”

The adjustments to the squads follow a period of assessment that took into
account the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, Test matches in Hobart, the World League
Semi Final and the national program’s daily training environment.